


Country

by minniebot



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Freeform, Implied/Referenced Character Death, it's lich stuff don't worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 02:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minniebot/pseuds/minniebot
Summary: It started before he ever thought it could go anywhere and continued further than he ever dreamed. He loved her and dreamed from afar and loved her and worked with her and loved her and never stopped searching, and in the end more than anything it was that love which defined him.





	Country

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElZacharie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElZacharie/gifts).



> ostensibly this takes place during episode 65 but i only listened to that one once and the timeline probably doesn't line up, so. canon divergence i guess?? just roll with me
> 
> fun fact this first chapter was for [ElZacharie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElZacharie/pseuds/ElZacharie)'s birthday like a week ago and i sent it to him then but I just haven't put it up here until now for No Reason
> 
> i didn't really Get Barry at all until i finally found some music i could connect to him, and surprise! it turns out it was mostly country music. This chapter is named for and inspired by [Shallow Grave by The Steeldrivers](https://youtu.be/WW8m-c10_zo).

Odd, the way necromancy pulls at your bones. Barry didn’t die permanently anymore, no stranger indeed to the concept and feeling of resurrection -- but it took until after he’d performed the full ritual for him to get a real grip on what proper Death really was.

 

See, he couldn’t quite click into the feeling before -- evidence piled upon evidence, year after year after year of dying to categorize the feeling of being resurrected taking toll after toll on the rest of his -- his  _ family _ , family, god, what a concept, not his, surely never for him, but they  _ cared _ and they  _ were his _ and he couldn’t click into that either -- but after The Ritual, after watching his brother choke on the fear for his sister surely not for him, never for him, he spent the rest of that year dead. He  _ spent _ it dead, time pass and time pull, not a second lost between consciousness and Consciousness, tethered to Lup at all times but Moreso in the second circumstance. 

 

And so when the resurrection happens as they escape again and run past and shift into something new and unfamiliar but so familiar, again and again a new place, he studies it again as he had before every time. That’s when it clicks, finally, countless years in, time always present but lost in monotony, deaths uncounted but always calculated, always studied, always purposeful -- he’s never been resurrected. Not properly, not until -- until he took hold of his own odd magic and ripped the skeletons from himself and his soulmate and molded them into the undead. No, this feeling, silver threads and pounding heads, always on edge from a hangover gathered as they left, the final remnant of the place where he was raised and kissed his parents and fell in love with Lup always, always before now, always and forever and before and after -- this was  _ reconstruction _ .

 

The bonds twirl and tie around him and pull flesh back over skin and form him back into what he was when he left, jeans and robe and old sneakers, loose screw in the right hinge of his glasses found a few cycles in when he dropped them and the arm fell off and he couldn’t see for the rest of that year. But now, Lup steps in towards him and  _ picks _ him up around the waist and twirls, laughing, and she  _ kisses _ him and he’s aloft and  _ alive _ and  _ they did it _ . One step closer, one step better, one step ahead. And they can die and die again but they’ll never  _ die _ and they’ll always be together and he  _ loves her, gods, he loves her. _

 

Barry is ready to peel his skin off and hers and feel her again, energy against energy boundless and infinite and  _ powerful _ , too vital for organs and ethereal for bone, shadow melting into shadow until they had each other but were only one,  _ the _ only one -- and then there’s a solid  _ thud _ into his spine and he yelps as Magnus thumps him solidly on the back and reaches around him to pick  _ Lup _ up.

 

“What the hell was that?!” Magnus exclaims, rocking Lup side to side and taking Barry with them. Barry is taut and tense and crossbow-ready to bolt but when he looks down at Lup she’s beaming, toothy and smug and glittering with cheer and he trusts her so Magnus isn’t mad, he’s just Magnus as always.

 

“What'd it look like, Burnsides?” Lup yells back, squeezing closer, Barry’s waist cinching and creaking warm by her skin and hot by Magnus’s.

 

“What do I look like, a magician?” Magnus says, clutching and pop-pressure before letting them go, motion gravity inertia pushing the shock of landing through Lup’s boots and into her arms and into the crown of his head but she won't let him go or down, not that he minds.

 

“We're liches now,” Barry says lightly, dizzy from his own pulse, the ache in his teeth and the press of a bruise on his hip where he'd run into a table in the bar watching Lup sling a pair of shoes over her shoulder by the shoelaces and  _ grin _ . 

 

“No, we got that part, Barold,” Taako snipes as Davenport asks, “Still?”, stepping down from the cockpit.

 

“I, uh, I -- It sure feels like it,” Barry stammers, six pairs of twelve eyes suddenly heavy on his bones and wrenching his gut out of place and he  _ squirms _ in Lup’s grip. He feels her face press into his neck and she breathes carbon dioxide and magic over his tendons and he's  _ home,  _ he's home with her through the aches and flesh and stares of his family where he died and was stitched back together.

 

He hears Lucretia hum behind him before she says, “I wonder why that stuck over the transition?”

 

Before he can answer, explanations swirling in his head and popping before he can voice them, Lup shrugs kisses his neck and shifts him in her arms.

 

“Questions later,” she announces to the rest of the crew, vibrato low against his skin, “Right now, everyone's favorite Bear and I have some  _ catching up _ to do in my room.” 

 

The crew makes loud groans behind them as Lup slips away with Barry trophied in her arms, Taako’s  _ It's my room too, you assholes!  _ loudest among the din, but Barry’s eyes and hands and heart and attention are only for her. He links their fingers together, curling and soft and warm, squinches his neck so she pulls away, kisses her on the nose.

 

“I love you,” he says as she finally puts him down on her bed. His waist is cold and loose and he pulls her hands back to him, he needs her pressure needs her heat needs her heart needs her.

 

“I love you too,” she says, lips wide, parted, fingers splayed over his heart.

 

“Forever,” he ends. They're safe and together and here and nothing can catch them and he's  _ ready _ , lance sharp and love dulled and he could take on the Hunger by  _ himself _ right now and he bets he could  _ win _ .

  
“Forever,” she breathes, and his pulse flutters out and fills him and buzzing, he rests.

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up at [voidfishkin](voidfishkin.tumblr.com) (writing blog, barely used) or [minerva-is-a-robot](minerva-is-a-robot.tumblr.com) (sideblog, the one i actually use) and talk to me about taz! i love making friends and have a Lot To Say and have many plans. yell at me about finishing them. the last two things I've finished were for friends' birthdays so logically if i make enough friends in this fandom I'll write something for everyone's birthdays, and everyone will get more content it's a win/win


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